November 14, 2014 Friday

Bolinas	Patch
9:30 am to 10:30 am	Consistent 3', sets to 4'
Low outgoing tide	Slight NW breeze
Air temp: 60 degrees	Water temp: 58 degrees
Sunny with high clouds	Fun session

"Here Loren, take it. It's yours, try it out."

Dripping wet after having just exited the water, Jack the Dave Sweet team rider shoved his brand new board into my hands. He has been telling me for weeks about this new "perfect Patch board" he ordered from John Moore of Mystic Surfboards. John knows the Patch from living and surfing in Bolinas and has been building custom surfboards for years. He and Nick started the 2-Mile Surf Shop. Thus with Jack's specifications and John's knowledge of the Patch, they came up with the ideal board for the Patch –

9' - 6" in length,

23 inches wide,

3 and 1/4 inches thick,

19 inches across the nose,

Square tail,

Airplane wing shaped rails with little taper from the center, and

Little rocker for fast paddling.

Per Jack, side fins slow down the board and are only needed on steep waves, which is not the Patch. For attaching the leash, Jack had John build up a bump of glass and resin in the tail block with a hole drilled through it tying the leash cord to the board. This avoids putting a hole through the board to insert a plastic plug for the leash cord. Over time the plug can loosen or pull out causing leaks between the glass and the foam.

Jack promised me he would let me ride it. He was convinced that I needed a board, and he was right. My borrowed 9' 4" Becker was showing wear with numerous cracks in the glass and ten patched dings. Also, with age, we older guys require bigger and easier to paddle boards. That's Jack with his new board in the photo above.

"Here, take it. Stay out as long as you want. I have some painting to do on the house above the Patch. I can watch you from there and know when you get out."

That did it. I'm going out. I didn't even check the waves or take any photos. I went straight back to my car to suit up.

Just my luck the waves were good. The parking lot was full when I arrived, someone pulled out and I got his spot. All indicating the waves were up. The morning buoy report was encouraging, 7-foot NW swell at 14 seconds. The end of a strong swell that came in last Sunday in front of a cold front that brought rain to Marin yesterday. The inside rights at the Patch were pumping.

I easily glided out to the line-up on Jack's fast paddling Patch board, and in an hour caught six long right curls. The board handled great. I paddled into every wave that I went for, quickly swung right, climbed high in the curls and cruised across continuously right peeling curls.

Jack greeted me as I came up the ramp after my session, and I had to agree with him that he and John had created the perfect Patch board.

November 10, 2014

Bolinas	Groin
9:20 am to 10:30 am	3' to 4', occasional 5'
Mid upcoming tide	No wind to slight onshore breeze
Air temp: 55 degrees	Water temp: 58 degrees
Low on-the-deck-fog to thick overcast	Fun session

I'm back! In a little over an hour I caught fives waves – all lefts and all good rides.

For the first half hour I paddled around mushy waves trying to get the feel of the conditions. The waves had force and were intimating. David who used to ride the Becker board was out there also. Two old wounded warriors. He was recovering from a shoulder operation and I from my surfer ear procedure and a bad cold. After six weeks out of the water my arms and legs were weak and my confidence was low.

I watched David closely and followed his lead. As always he looked in great shape and caught plenty of waves. One other longboarder was on the peak with us. A set came through, and he took off while I ploughed through the white water. The surge picked me up and washed me back several feet, and I felt a bump on my legs. This guy had wiped out and his board hit me. I was ok and so was he. No harm, no foul. It just added to my apprehension about this morning's conditions.

With no wind and a super low fog, the surface was perfectly glassed off when I finally caught one. Just as the wave was breaking I paddled hard and glided into well-formed four-foot wave. It was forgiving; building slowly and thus allowing me time to get to my feet. What a thrill to turn into a smooth wall of water and hear that "smoosh" sound while cutting across a perfectly glassed off face. The lip crested and broke in front of me, and with plenty of speed I drove under the white water and climbed back into the swell. The wave kept forming, I shot through the another section, cut-back, turned left again into the curl and hummed all the way to the shore break, pulling out over the top as it collapsed on the sand. I had surprised myself on how well I handled that wave. It was like riding a bicycle; the old form was back.

My confidence grew with each ride. I moved in to wait until the waves were breaking to go for them. One wave was feathering for several feet across the impact zone when I turned and started paddling for it. The wave picked me up, and I jumped up as it broke. With speed I drove along the bottom of the wave just a few feet behind the breaking curl of the wave. I attempted to drive under the white water to climb back into the swell. But it never happened. For several yards I powered just behind the curl until the wave jumped up for the shore break causing me to dive over the top as it broke on shore.

For over an hour David and I had the peak just north of the Groin wall to ourselves. The only other person in the water was a stand-up surfer a quarter mile south at a peak in front of the houses at Seadrift. He was constantly moving around and started paddling north. I thought he looked like our surfing buddy Kip the pilot boat captain. Soon he joined us and it was Kip. We chatted briefly and off he was again paddling south to the furthest peak at the Channel.

When I arrived this morning the on-the-deck fog was so thick I couldn't see the waves at the Patch or the Groin, and so couldn't take any pictures. I took the photo above after my session from the overlook on Terrace Road above the Patch when the fog had lifted a bit. Note the tide was higher, the waves mushier and the crowd had arrived. David and I had caught the best of it today. 

November 3, 2014 Monday - Part 2

Sunflowers

At first I went to Bolinas and it was virtually flat. When I jumped out of the car I spotted Frank the stand-up guy toweling off after his session. He gave me that "it's flat" hand gesture. He had gone out merely for the exercise. We had a good chat about grandchildren. Two weeks ago my daughter Allison gave birth to our first grandchild, Sebastian. Frank's daughter had just given birth to Frank's second grandchild. Frank and his wife were about to head to Southern California to visit them. He assured me that grandchildren become more fun and interesting as they grow. His older one is now 19 months, runs around the house and is beginning to form complete sentences. My little Sebastian can only eat, sleep and poop. I wished him a good trip and hopped back in the car to check out Stinson.

I stopped at the farm stand at the edge of town. I was thinking of buying some sunflowers for Kate.

"Are the sunflowers fresh?" I asked the guy who was unloading squash in the back of the stand.

"Picked yesterday and some this morning." Thus I met Ryan, one of the one proud founders of Gospel Flat Farms.

He proceeded to teach me what to look for in sunflowers. In the center of the bloom, there's a brown center that looks like a pincushion. This is where the seeds form. The bees pull out the pollen and leave a small "speck" (don't ask what the "specks" consist of) at the base of the stem of the petals near the center. With active bee pollination, these specks form a ring around the center of the flower. Thus the bigger the ring the longer the bloom has been open. Ryan told me to look for flowers with no ring or with just a thin ring. With that advice I picked out the freshest bunch there, as you can see in the photo above.

John, the excellent surfer and owner of the Parkside Cafe in Stinson Beach, arrived with an empty produce box in his hand. He was there to buy vegetables for the restaurant. I introduced him to Ryan and informed Ryan that John bakes the best bread in Marin County. John loaded up his basket and had a good "farmer's" discussion with Ryan about the produce.

I hopped back into the car and headed for Stinson Beach to go surfing for the first time since my ear operation. As usual, it was a great day in Marin. 

November 3, 2014 Monday - Part 1

Stinson Beach	Right out front
10:15 am to 11:00 am	2' to 3', occasional 4'
High dropping tide	No wind, glassy smooth
Air temp: 65 degrees	Water temp: 61 degrees
Sunny with high clouds	Fun session

In 45 minutes I caught three waves and missed dozens of them. All three I rode on my knees, two to the right and one to the left. On my first wave I jumped up to my knees, turned the board to the right, cut high in the curl, hung there for a couple of seconds as the wave formed into a suck-out wall and over the falls I went – straight down free fall into swirling white water. I was proud of myself for hanging onto the board. My next two waves weren't any better, and with the tide going out and the waves walling-up I called it quits.

Though my session was a bust, I had a good time. Reason: this was my first time back in the water since September 11 – 53 days! On September 15 Dr. Agbayani operated on my Surfer's Ear; a hospital procedure where he put me out and literally chiseled off the bone material that had built up in my left ear canal. The recovery required three weeks of staying out of the water, keeping my ear dry and taking eardrops and antibiotic pills. During this period I caught a nasty cold that would not go away. When Dr. Agbayani gave me the ok, I didn't feel like going into the water due to the cold – drained of energy, aching joints and overall blahs.

After another couple of weeks, I went to my local doctor to get some relief. He put me on a five-day regiment of antibiotics, which meant I had a bacteria infection. I asked him if I could have caught this infection from the hospital. He didn't think so because my ailment didn't affect my ear. I wasn't convinced. Twice I have gone to Marin General for operations and twice, after three weeks, have come down with internal bacteria infections.

Why was this day special? The antibiotics worked, I felt much better, the weather was warm and sunny and the swell was small – perfect for getting back into shape. As has happened numerous times before, there's nothing like vigorous exercise, warm sunshine and a dose of cold water to shake a cold. After this session I felt great. The cold was gone and I was back.